Federal agents have arrested the niece and great-niece of former Revolutionary Guards special forces commander Qassem Soleimani after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their legal status in the US, the State Department said.
“Hamide Soleimani Asfar and her daughter are now in the custody” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the State Department said.
Rubio revoked the two women’s green cards, ending their status as legal residents in the US.
Qassem Soleimani, who is considered a hero in the US, was killed in 2020 in Baghdad, by a US drone strike.
Hamide Soleimani Asfar is accused of openly supporting the Islamic Republic. “While residing in the U.S., he spread Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks on American soldiers and bases in the Middle East, praised Iran’s new supreme leader, denounced America as the ‘great Satan,’ and expressed unwavering support for the Revolutionary Guards, a designated terrorist organization,” it said. State Department. Her husband was barred from entering the US.
In early April, Rubio also revoked the “legal status” of Fatemeh Ardesir-Larijani, the daughter of Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, who was killed in mid-March by an Israeli strike. Ardesir-Larijani and her husband, Seyed Qalandar Motamedi, “are no longer in the US and are prohibited from returning in the future” to US soil, according to the ministry.
“The Trump administration will not allow our country to host foreign nationals who support anti-American, terrorist regimes,” Rubio said in a post on the X platform.
